In a race that departed from the mud-slinging antics of the deadlocked presidential battle, Democratic State Sen. Gwen Moore triumphed over Republican Gerald Boyle to become Wisconsin’s first black congressional representative in the U.S. House.
After two consecutive terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Moore, the first black woman in the State Senate, also became the first black woman in Congress. She represents the 4th Senate District, a Democratic stronghold, which extends from parts of Shorewood, Glendale and middle Milwaukee to the Waukesha County line.
April Kumapayi, secretary of the University of Wisconsin’s Black Student Union, said Moore is a positive role model for the black female community.
“It shows black women have come a long way and that they can reach any goal they strive toward,” she said.
Moore has promised to fight against racial profiling and voting-rights violations and to increase admissions of minority students at state colleges.
She has tried to connect with area voters by telling stories about growing up in a large family and later depending on welfare as an expectant mother in college.
Ralph Hollmon, president and C.E.O. of the non-partisan organization Milwaukee Urban League, said Moore understood “first-hand” the issues important to voters because of her humble background in Milwaukee.
Volunteer for the Moore campaign Kathleen Hart said Moore’s background made her focus on building an affordable health-care system, improving educational facilities and developing jobs. Moore has also said she wishes to extend unemployment benefits and improve job retention programs.
Moore coasted on a comfortable lead through the congressional campaign lacking the negativity of state and national elections.
Hart partially credited the amiability between the two candidates to Boyle’s “underdog” role.
“There are no ads on either side, so there is no chance to do the negative campaigning,” Hart said, referring to the lack of competitive advertisement in the efforts.
Following the primaries, both candidates vowed to abstain from attacking each other in the political arena and said they counted on each other as friends. Moore even attended her opponent’s wedding per his invitation.
In an isolated case of confrontation following an Oct. 21 congressional debate at Alverno College, a graduate student from UW-Milwaukee spit on Boyle because of the Republican’s view on the war in Iraq.
In addition to defending the war, Boyle also supports the Milwaukee school choice program and making the Bush administration’s tax cuts permanent.
Moore’s winning campaign in the Milwaukee area was the only race where an incumbent did not attempt to reclaim the seat in the U.S. House in the state. In the seven other congressional districts in Wisconsin, the incumbent won by at least eight points as of press time.
